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Tasting Notes for Clos Vougeot - Grivot, Jean, 2005:
A 2005 Clos Vougeot offers a nose of blackberry, wreathed in wood smoke. Firmer in tannin and with less surface polish than most of GrivotÕs wines, it exhibits chalky, black-fruited depth, and overt density, palate-coating richness, but also notable freshness and grip all the way through to its long if ultimately rather austere mineral finish. Figure waiting for 5-7 years just to check back on this. Etienne Grivot aimed this year for gentle extraction (essentially without pigeage), then watchful preservation of the freshness, subtleties and refinement inherent in near-perfect raw material. He performed some very light chaptalization to extend the fermentations. Given the health and natural concentration of his vinous raw material, he felt no need to sulfur or rack the wines until shortly prior to bottling (without filtration), which was the stage at which I tasted. Wine Advocate # 170 Apr 2007
Parker Points: 90-91
Drinking Period:  -

Tasting Notes for Gevrey Chambertin Lavaux St Jacques - Potel, Nicolas, 2005:
ItÕs hard to put names on the intense floral and mineral aromatics of PotelÕs 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux St.-Jacques but suggestions of rose petal, sea breeze and crushed stone are woven throughout this wine. Salt-crusted red currant, raspberry and beef marrow wreathed in flowers and truffle scents on the palate lead to a mysteriously multi-registered, rarified finish possessed of truly ethereal floral and distilled red fruit notes. The refinement of texture and interplay of flavors here are rather white wine-like. As superb as it is intriguing, I would suggest anyone lucky enough to latch on to a few bottles check it out in at most three more years, as one would not want to miss out on anything that is present now. Wine Advocate # 171 Jun 2007
Parker Points: 94-95
Drinking Period:  -

Tasting Notes for Gevrey Chambertin Lavaux St Jacques - Potel, Nicolas, 2005:
ItÕs hard to put names on the intense floral and mineral aromatics of PotelÕs 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux St.-Jacques but suggestions of rose petal, sea breeze and crushed stone are woven throughout this wine. Salt-crusted red currant, raspberry and beef marrow wreathed in flowers and truffle scents on the palate lead to a mysteriously multi-registered, rarified finish possessed of truly ethereal floral and distilled red fruit notes. The refinement of texture and interplay of flavors here are rather white wine-like. As superb as it is intriguing, I would suggest anyone lucky enough to latch on to a few bottles check it out in at most three more years, as one would not want to miss out on anything that is present now. Wine Advocate # 171 Jun 2007
Parker Points: 94-95
Drinking Period:  -

Tasting Notes for Le Corton - Bouchard Pere et Fils, 2005:
The Bouchard 2005 Le Corton Ñ from very chalky parcels in the Ur-Corton as it were, just below the forest Ñ offers aromas of cedar, spice, and smoked meat, a rather austere but certainly well-concentrated palate impression, and a bit of blockage by tannin. This seems to have been caught at a very awkward stage today. Managing director Stephane Follin and cellar master Philippe Prost preside over a remarkable new, gravity-fed winemaking facility capable of handling the fruits of BouchardÕs 130 hectares of vines Ñ BurgundyÕs largest estate (with 84 hectares in premier and grand crus alone) Ñ not to mention the enormous range of wine from purchased fruit or wines. Fully 40% of the reds are vinified in open-top fermenters with manual punch-downs (the balance in a battery of roto-fermentors) and the system of traffic control alone that must be in place during crush is hard to imagine. The underground acreage devoted to barriques similarly defies imagination Ñ until one sees it. Prost was very cautious with pigeage this year, but incorporated a significant percentage of whole clusters with stems in many of his better lots. A reputation for improved quality is being built here to which the results of 2005 will certainly contribute. I suspect that a number of the wines I tasted had not recovered from their recent bottling, hence the number of Ù+?Îs one sees displayed following my scores. Wine Advocate # 171 Jun 2007
Parker Points: 88
Drinking Period:  -

Tasting Notes for Ruchottes Chambertin Clos des Ruchottes - Rousseau, Armand, 2005:
The 2005 Ruchottes Chambertin Clos des Ruchottes, from vines averaging fifty years of age in a Rousseau monopole that makes up nearly one third of this entire appellation, offers ripe, fresh black cherry, sweet spices, black tea, high-toned herbal distillates, musky florality, cedar, game, smoked meat and wood smoke on the nose, and a palate of impressive density that revels in fresh fruit juiciness even as it reveals layers of meat and minerals and leaves you salivating and chewing the air long after it has (reluctantly) been spat. This fascinating wine deserves another showing in ten or a dozen years, but should certainly be worthy of more than two decades bottle maturation, indeed I am sure Charles Rousseau would recommend that you not even peek before then. With Eric Rousseau taking over increasingly from his father Charles, bottling may end up being slightly earlier than in the past, but such routine features as triage exclusively in the vineyards (not the press house), the inclusion of whole clusters and stems, precocious malolactic fermentation (although in 2005 and 2006, at least, Rousseau says he didnÕt force this), reliance on older barrels, and an eventual light plaque filtration for all wines remain as before. Given the long-running success of these Pinots in subtly yet insistently conveying the distinct personalities of their sites and standing the test of time, some might well ask Ùwhy change the recipe?Î while others will wonder whether the wines could be made even better. In any event, nature conspired to hand the new generation a vintage of historic dimensions. Wine Advocate # 170 Apr 2007
Parker Points: 94
Drinking Period:  -

Tasting Notes for Ruchottes Chambertin Clos des Ruchottes - Rousseau, Armand, 2005:
The 2005 Ruchottes Chambertin Clos des Ruchottes, from vines averaging fifty years of age in a Rousseau monopole that makes up nearly one third of this entire appellation, offers ripe, fresh black cherry, sweet spices, black tea, high-toned herbal distillates, musky florality, cedar, game, smoked meat and wood smoke on the nose, and a palate of impressive density that revels in fresh fruit juiciness even as it reveals layers of meat and minerals and leaves you salivating and chewing the air long after it has (reluctantly) been spat. This fascinating wine deserves another showing in ten or a dozen years, but should certainly be worthy of more than two decades bottle maturation, indeed I am sure Charles Rousseau would recommend that you not even peek before then. With Eric Rousseau taking over increasingly from his father Charles, bottling may end up being slightly earlier than in the past, but such routine features as triage exclusively in the vineyards (not the press house), the inclusion of whole clusters and stems, precocious malolactic fermentation (although in 2005 and 2006, at least, Rousseau says he didnÕt force this), reliance on older barrels, and an eventual light plaque filtration for all wines remain as before. Given the long-running success of these Pinots in subtly yet insistently conveying the distinct personalities of their sites and standing the test of time, some might well ask Ùwhy change the recipe?Î while others will wonder whether the wines could be made even better. In any event, nature conspired to hand the new generation a vintage of historic dimensions. Wine Advocate # 170 Apr 2007
Parker Points: 94
Drinking Period:  -

Tasting Notes for Volnay Clos des Ducs - Marquis d'Angerville, 2005:
The dÕAngerville 2005 Volnay Clos des Ducs displays even more obvious structure than the Champans as well as concentration and complexity than the Taillepieds. Deep, rich meatiness, juicy fresh black fruits, bitter-sweet chocolate richness, ginger and cardamom, and chalky minerality are present throughout. This displays enough inner-mouth perfume and fineness of flavor to hold oneÕs interest and release oneÕs saliva for an extended period. Fine-grained and finely-integrated tannins are part of this wineÕs tenacious cling. It will surely figure as one of the best in a long and distinguished line and be worth following for 15-20 years. This is one of those 2005s whose market price I have heard tell is bringing Pinot lovers to tears of despair, although the suggested retail pricing from the importer confirms the fact that neither they nor the domaine were greedy when it came to pricing this latest collection. (The impressively concentrated 2004 is a bit sweet-sour and faintly warm in finish today, but unlike so many wines of that vintage it is apt to have more to say for itself in another couple of years.) The late Jacques dÕAngervilleÕs son Guillaume and long-time wine making collaborator and brother-in-law Renaud de Villette can boast a superb collection of 2005s, but an equally apt tribute to the legacy of the late Marquis are the odds-beating results they bottled from 2004, when to the universal difficulties of that vintage were added the ravages of hail it visited on Volnay. The 2005s fermented with pump-overs but no punch-downs and exhibit formidable underlying structure yet pure fruit and early, flattering textural development. Wine Advocate # 171 Jun 2007
Parker Points: 94-95
Drinking Period:  -

Tasting Notes for Vosne Romanee Orveaux - Cathiard, Sylvain, 2005:
From 60-year-old vines high up above Echezeaux, the Cathiard 2005 Vosne-Romanee En Orveaux is the most austere wine on this occasion, with a chalky mineral character and bright but slightly tart red fruit marked by candied and caramelized inflections and a considerable evidence of new wood. Smoked meat character emerges beneath the alternating bright and caramelized black fruits in the finish. Not that this wine is entirely unimpressive Ñ far from it Ñ but could it just be having a bad day, I wonder? Wine Advocate # 171 Jun 2007
Parker Points: 89-90
Drinking Period:  -

Tasting Notes for Chambertin Clos de Beze - Rousseau, Armand, 2003:
Loads of spices are intermingled with blackberries and black cherries in the wonderful aromatics of the 2003 Chambertin-Clos de Beze. A bold, ample, medium to full-bodied wine, it expands on the palate, revealing great breadth and richness. Hugely spicy, this candied blackberry-dominated effort sports a persistent finish crammed with solid tannin. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2020. The Wine Advocate, #160, Aug-05.
Parker Points: 93
Drinking Period: 2009-2020

Tasting Notes for Chambertin Clos de Beze - Rousseau, Armand, 2003:
Loads of spices are intermingled with blackberries and black cherries in the wonderful aromatics of the 2003 Chambertin-Clos de Beze. A bold, ample, medium to full-bodied wine, it expands on the palate, revealing great breadth and richness. Hugely spicy, this candied blackberry-dominated effort sports a persistent finish crammed with solid tannin. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2020. The Wine Advocate, #160, Aug-05.
Parker Points: 93
Drinking Period: 2009-2020